Critics of Dublin airport's long-awaited Terminal 2 - finally given the construction go-ahead this week - should ask passengers what they want, writes Declan Collier
It's the summer of 2010 and you are heading to Dublin airport to catch a flight to Italy for a two-week break. Or perhaps you're off to London for a conference.
You enter Terminal 2 and find yourself in a bright, airy, new passenger terminal faced with a range of modern check-in options. Meanwhile over in Terminal 1, things have also improved dramatically. It's busy, but it doesn't feel cramped and congested the way it used to.
This kind of travel experience came a huge step closer this week when An Bord Pleanála granted permission to build Terminal 2 and the new runway. We can now proceed with building these two critical pieces of infrastructure that the travelling public so urgently requires.
The new runway, planned since the 1970s, will be built within the next five years. It should allow the capacity of Dublin airport to expand to about 50 million passengers per year, although reaching this level would require a third terminal.
We are hugely mindful of the impact the new runway and the expansion of the airport will have on some of our local communities, and we will continue to work with them to mitigate that impact.
Some have argued the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), the body that runs the airport, simply wants to build new facilities to serve its own revenue purposes. This does not make sense. The DAA is aware it must continue to offer competitive prices and value to all its airline customers and more choice and services to passengers.
Those commentators who think this is about "gold-plating" or revenue aggrandisement - instead of service levels and comfort - should ask the mother standing in a hugely crowded departures area whether she would like a new terminal with additional space and comfort for her family. Or ask the hard-pressed business traveller whether he would like a more efficient trip through the airport. These new facilities are for our passengers - whether they use the airport once a year or once a week - and they are needed desperately.
Due to huge growth in airline travel, facilities at Dublin airport are under severe stress. This year more than 23 million people will pass through the airport. In 1996, that figure was just nine million.
Dublin airport is the fastest-growing major airport in Europe, and has more international passengers than JFK in New York, LAX in Los Angeles, and Zurich or Rome.
Investment in passenger facilities has not kept pace with this growth, particularly over the past decade, when capital spending at Dublin airport was effectively stalled due to the debate about who should provide such facilities.
Thankfully things have changed and we are now investing in a range of cost-effective modern facilities that will radically improve the passenger experience at Dublin airport.
Some €2 billion will be wisely invested over the next 10 years on your behalf. Some of these projects will be major and highly visible - such as Terminal 2, the new parallel runway and internal road systems.
Other equally important projects will be less visible. For instance, we are investing €80 million to provide essential new parking spaces and taxiways for aircraft.
One major project, a €120 million new boarding gate facility known as "Pier D", will open this October, providing 12 new gates and extra space while you wait for your aircraft.
However, Pier D will not bring any extra terminal space and that is why, having been granted planning permission for Terminal 2, the DAA intends to begin building it as soon as possible.
Terminal 2 will cost €395 million, while facilities such as Pier E, a new energy centre and an upgrade of the airport campus roads will bring the overall cost of the entire project to €609 million. A team of Government-appointed experts independent of the DAA scrutinised these costs and found them to be in line with similar projects at other major airports across Europe.
Only one of the 92 airlines that operate from Dublin airport objected to the plans for Terminal 2 and it has invested much time and energy criticising the project. It should be remembered the airline in question tends to be motivated by self-interest rather than by the interests of Dublin airport passengers and the wider Irish economy.
Business and tourism leaders are agreed that Dublin airport needs the new facilities we plan to build. Alsothe travelling public deserves an improved service.
The cost of the new terminal will be met through a combination of airport charges, commercial revenues and borrowings. The DAA is funded through a user/passenger-pays, system rather than by the Government or taxpayers. The maximum average passenger charge at Dublin - the lowest of any major European airport - is €6.34 per flight and this provides less than one-third of the DAA's revenue.
The DAA has stated it can deliver its €2 billion investment programme for an additional average charge per passenger of €2.50, over the next two years. That's a lot of benefits for less than the price of a cup of coffee.
Retail sales and other commercial revenue provide the remainder of the DAA's income. Some commentators complain that we have too many retail outlets but surveys tell us that many passengers want to shop at the airport. And lower retail revenues would mean passenger charges would have to rise.
Now that we have been granted planning permission for Terminal 2, the DAA wants to begin its construction as soon as possible. The construction phase will continue until late 2009 and, following commissioning and testing, Terminal 2 will open in April 2010.
The time for talking has passed; the time for building has now begun.
Declan Collier is chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority